Have you ever asked this? Maybe to your English teacher, tutor, or native speaker friend? It's a good question! But what answers do you get, and are they helpful to you? "Your English is really good!" some might say, or "you seem advanced to me!" These kinds of answers, although nice to hear, might not be very useful, especially if you want to take your English to the next level. Levels of English Are you now wondering which level you're at? It's another way of asking our original question, I know, but maybe the answer to this more specific question (if asked to the right person) might be more helpful to you. In general, there are three levels of English: basic, intermediate, and advanced. Depending on who evaluates or tests you (eg. teacher, exam, or college), these levels can be split up (eg. Basic 1 & 2, Intermediate 1 & 2, etc.) or be labeled with a number. It's a good idea to get a "scoring" every once in a while, just so you can see how you're improving. Keep in mind, though, that your level can go up or down, depending on how much you practice and use your English. You can also have a higher "score" in one skill than another. For example, you might read at an intermediate level but have a basic level in listening. Who to ask for an English evaluation You could ask a certified TESOL instructor/coach like myself, but if you do...
With this in mind, hopefully you can see how unfair it is to ask anyone to evaluate your English based on a short conversation with you. Sure, this conversation might say something about your listening and speaking skills (sometimes grammar), but not everything. To get a full evaluation, you'll need to invest a little time, not only for the evaluation, but a discussion on what to do with that evaluation afterwards. How about the IELTS or TOEFL? Have you taken the IELTS or TOEFL? (Maybe both?) These tests (and others like them) can give you a good idea of where you're at, too. If you are okay with paying some money or are planning to go to school in an English-speaking country anyway, you might consider taking one of these formal examinations and see where you are! Keep in mind that these tests not only have different purposes, but they also have different ways of scoring. Also note that they test all of your skills. (See images below; links to learn more about each available, just click the tables.) Score Yourself
Yes, it is possible to figure out your own level, either by trying out different activities online or challenging yourself with harder and harder material. (For example, check out engoo articles!) This kind of free-styling is often challenging for students since they don't always know where to go for activities or have a hard time deciding if something is basic, intermediate or advanced. That's when it's nice to get an official "scoring," from a test or teacher. But if you're looking for a general answer for "how's your English?" you probably can evaluate yourself. Which areas do you usually feel weak in? Reading, writing, listening, speaking, grammar... vocabulary? Which areas do you feel comfortable and confident? Evaluating yourself can be as simple as deciding how "comfortable" you feel when asked to write, read, listen, or speak in English. It's okay if your answer changes from day to day. ;) So what do you think? How's your English today?
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"Do you blog?" my friend Angie asked me one day. I met her in the tutoring center several years ago, but even though we worked together, both as ESL teachers and tutors, I considered her my friend as well as my colleague.
"Yes!" I answered. "I have blogged for years. Why do you ask?" "I'm starting a podcast for ESL learners," Angie said. "And I was wondering if I could read one of your blog posts on my show." "Of course!" I gave her a bunch of options, but in the end, she chose to use an older post I wrote about playing the drums. I wasn't sure why she picked that one, but I figured she knew what she was doing. "Do you think it would be possible for you to record yourself playing something on your drum set for me?" Angie asked. "I think, after that, I'll have everything I need." I agreed to it. Once she had everything together---the blog post, a bio about the writer (me!), and the drum fill--- Angie got to work, and today, I'm proud to share with you a link to the inaugural episode! She's got a bunch of others, so if you are speak English as a Second Language, want to see a good example of how to teach ESL, or want to hear me playing a drum fill at the beginning and the end of the episode, go ahead! Check it out! Traditionally speaking, there are two types of tutoring (and teaching for that matter!): 1) synchronous 2) asynchronous. Synchronous tutoring is your typical real-time experience, in-person or virtual. Students meet in and interact with their tutor, asking questions and receiving answers and feedback to their writing in real-time. This is, I think, what we most often envision when we think about tutoring writing. (It's also what I talk most about in my blog!) Today, I want to talk about the second type of tutoring: asynchronous (sometimes lovingly referred to as async). I want to do this (mostly) because I recently co-presented a workshop on async best practices to a group of online tutors, so async ideals are fresh on my mind. Also because async tutoring seems to be popping up more and more as online education grows and/or becomes more of a necessity. Lastly, I want to share my thoughts on async tutoring because I love it! It's a fantastic way to reach students who are extremely busy and cannot make an appointment in the Writing Center or are shy about meeting with a tutor or teacher in-person. Async isn't "new," (although some colleges claim that it is). After all, I first learned about async tutoring in 2004! But this type of tutoring is growing as our technology continues to become more and more advanced. Technology aside, at the heart of every tutoring session, synchronous or async, I believe there should be a good balance between "higher order" and "lower order" writing concepts taught and encouraged in a tutoring writing session. But I'm getting ahead of myself... What does an async tutoring session (aka: assignment review) look like? For lack of a better description, async tutoring is similar to your old-school pen paling days, except instead of writing a letter to ask about your pen pal's day, you're writing to a tutor and asking for help on your writing assignment. The writing tutor will then review your paper and give you a list of strengths and suggestions for improvements and, essentially, write a letter back to you so you can revise your essay before submitting for a final grade. This "letter" can take several forms. The classic is the "Dear [Student Name], thank you for sharing your [assignment title, i.e rhetorical analysis] essay for a review! Three strengths are...[include list of strengths]. Three things you might want to keep working on are... [include list of specific suggestions]. Keep up the great work! Sincerely, [Tutor Name]." You can also have "fancier" forms, namely by using a template. For example, the student's paper can be pasted (by the writing tutor) into the template and the tutor would give in-line comments (ideally full sentences packed with critical thinking questions or comments that guide the student into better organization, content, and clarity). Afterwards, the tutor could list the three (or more) strengthens using bullets and summarize the main suggestions using bullets points. The template might, then, include a generic "encouraging" closing, reminding students to submit again or meet with a tutor in-real time. Best practices During my training workshop, I shared a sample essay. (Oftentimes looking at examples the best way to learn, I think!) I was especially fortunate to have had a student who was happy enough with her review that she not only was willing to let me use the review in our training but also tell me what she enjoyed most about my review to her. I'll share a few of her favorite techniques throughout this post. Every tutor has their own style or personal twist to tutoring, I've noticed, but like in the training I did, I can share some best practices for async tutoring that will hopefully apply to most tutors wanting to improve their craft. Tip #1 Be specific! For one tutoring company I work for, we use a template and use the "review" function in Word document as we read the draft. This means that I can highlight specific moments in the document and make suggestions "in the moment." If you choose to do this, I recommend highlighting complete sentences or phrases, rather than a random word in a sentence. Not only do you want me to be specific with what you highlight, though, but also in your comments. If, for example, you're giving a compliment (eg. Nice thesis statement!), be sure to explain why the thing you are complimenting is working (eg. Not only is your thesis placed well, as your last sentence in your introduction, which most teachers like, but it also clearly states your position for your argument!) If you're pointing out an opportunity for change (eg. This sentence might not be the best topic sentence for this paragraph), explain wither why you're giving that suggestion and/or briefly teach (eg. Topic sentences, remember, don't usually work well when they're facts. I wonder if you can adjust this statement into a claim and/or move this as a supporting detail for your paragraph). Tip #2 Provide resources! My tutoring (and teaching) philosophy has always included autonomy, which simply means that I want my students to have what they need to do their work confidently on their own. So, if in an assignment review I see a need for a specific change (eg. incorporating topic sentences), I like providing brief youtube videos and/or webpages that give examples and further explanations. This technique was well liked by the student I talked to. She specifically mentioned that she liked that I provided so many resources. Providing links, as a bonus, often makes completing the review on my end that much faster. ;) Tip #3 Ask questions! Thoughtful questions often critical thinking faster than anything else. They can also help students see where readers might be confused or where they might need to expand their ideas. CRLA calls this technique use of probing questions. It's something I use a lot in live-sessions as well! These are just a few beginner tips. As in any writing tutoring session, you'll want to balance your feedback. Make sure your comments are mainly focused on higher order concerns (thesis statement, organization, unity, coherence, clarity, critical thinking, etc.) and not on grammar and spelling. Oftentimes, when I see a typo, I'll point it out, but I don't fix it. I'll say something like, "Oops! Make sure read out loud. This will help you find typos like this one." Or something like, "You might want to review verb tenses as it looks like you're using the present progressive when simple present tense is preferred when talking about habits." And then link them to a reliable resource!
Async tutoring is not editing. I think, too often, tutors think that if they don't point out every error the student will somehow be disappointed in the review. Yes, point out grammatical error patterns, but remember always that what you're looking at (as a tutor!) is a draft, not a final product. Your job is not to grade the paper. So look for those higher order things because (frankly) the grammar will shift anyhow after they change their thesis, incorporate topic sentences, expand their ideas, etc. If your a student, interested in submitting a paper for a review, be sure to give your tutor as much information about the assignment as possible, and always say when it's due. This will help your tutor tailor their comments to your needs better. Writing letters back and forth may sound archaic, but it's really oftentimes the best way to reach those busy-busy students that need a 24-48 hour turn around! In an earlier post, I mentioned the low student enrollment at our colleges right now. I don't have the figures in front of me, although the English chair at my college did share them with me recently. I think, overall, we're down 33% we were last year. But if we drill that number down and look at simply the ESL enrollment at my community college, we're down 77%. Oi! As disheartening as these statistics are, they aren't surprising to me. (Again, I explain in another post why I think ESL students aren't enrolling for college right now.) The fact of the matter is, there simply isn't a lot of opportunity for teaching at the college. Not for part-time folks like me and especially if I want a class of ESL students. Thankfully, my backup gig is seeing us through! I work for an online tutoring company (Upswing), which serves over 60 different colleges across the USA. I've previously talked about Upswing and my love for coaching writing with them, so I won't go too much into that in this post. Let's instead talk about ESL cravings. It may sound strange to someone outside my field, but it's a thing! I've talked to other TESOL instructors, many of whom have had to straddle various jobs, either tutoring writing or teaching freshman comp, for example, and they've expressed the same cravings or wants. They're often coupled with travel cravings, so if you've ever had the traveling bug, you know what I'm talking about! I'm very happy with my main sources of income (at the college and at Upswing), but there are times when I wish I worked with more ESL students. Yes, I see them sometimes at Upswing, but not often enough... About two weeks ago, I started looking into additional tutoring gigs, not because I need something more during the semester but because I wanted to connect with ESL students! A friend of mine suggested VIP kids and Magic Ears, both of which have pretty flexible schedules and decent pay. He really likes it and encouraged me to apply. I didn't end up doing that, mostly because I'm not fond of waking up at 4am, but also because I'm not that great with kids. Not yet anyway. Maybe someday I'll be better at it. But for now, I'd like to stick with adults. That was about the time I remembered Cambly. Another friend of mine, who also teaches at the community college, told me she really likes tutoring with them, so I looked into it. They pay dirt (only about $10 an hour), but that doesn't bother me! I already have two good paying jobs. Besides, I think the learners pay out of their pocket, and I'd prefer it to be cheap so they can connect more easily.
Two things I like about Cambly: 1. It's centered around natural, free-flowing conversation! Not only is it fun to talk to people around the world, but it's just what these students need. Practice, practice, practice, right? It's a pretty brilliant concept, and I'm glad I found it, not only to satisfy my ESL cravings, but also to help students around the world. 2. It isn't tied to a semester! People always say to teachers, "You're so lucky you get winter break and summers off!" Sometimes it is a relief to get major holidays off. But sometimes, it's not. What some people don't know is that a lot of teachers aren't paid during their breaks. Money can be especially tight in the summer if you can't find a teaching gig. Covid has created a boost in summer tutoring, but even tutoring (in normal times) can be a dud. College students, too, (as you can imagine) want to take time off from their students. So, having something that isn't tied to a specific semester schedule is kind of nice! Cambly learners aren't always students. Sometimes they're people trying to keep up with their English (so they don't lose it) or want to improve their English because they want better job opportunities. It's kind of a crazy world right now! But I will say this: I'm glad I have a degree and passion for teaching that allows me to look into all kinds of job opportunities.
NOTE: Cambly doesn't require a TESOL certificate or even Bachelor's, so if you're a native speaker of English (or have exceptionally good English) and need some extra cash (or just want to connect with people around the world!) you might want to look into tutoring ESL online. (Don't) Picture your audience in their underwear: building audience awareness for persuasive essays12/9/2020 The last week or so, I've helped over a dozen writers with their argumentative/persuasive essays, so I thought I'd take a moment and record some advice I've said to pretty much all of these students. First of all, I don't like the term argumentative. It makes it sound like you're supposed to yell at your audience. Trust me. We don't want that. Instead of thinking of your assignment as an argumentative essay (even if your teacher calls it that), think of it as a persuasive essay. (They're the same thing anyhow!) We want the audience to really consider what you're saying and be persuaded. That's the ultimate goal of any "argumentative" essay. In order to do that, you need to do a few things. Picture your audience, but not in their underwear! Maybe you've heard the advice to picture your audience in their underwear? This is usually in reference to overcoming stage fright, which happens most often when giving an important speech to a group of people. Although similar, writing a persuasive essay is different from giving a speech. I like telling students to imagine their audience in the form of a friend (one person!)-- someone they might want to sit down and have a cup of coffee with (or cocoa in my instance, since I don't drink coffee). But you do not need to picture them in their underwear. Make this a friend you trust, someone you consider intelligent, and someone you'd like to keep your friend. Your goal is to persuade (get your point-of-view across to them) without belittling or making them so angry they never want to speak to you again. This person will have a completely opposite view point as you. They'll have questions, concerns, interests, and feelings about your topic. "Listen" to them. This will help you keep your friendship. I find that as students "picture their audience" in this way, their tone will be kinder as they respond to questions and concerns from their oppositions. Overall, they have a more mature argument. Teachers sometimes drill into us that we need to take a stance, take a stance... and yes, we do need to take a stance... (Or say what we believe and never waver from it!) But in doing so, we often forget that we're persuading, not just saying what we believe. There's a really awesome video (which I'll post below) where Ellen Degeneres defends her friendship with former President George W. Bush. They have complete opposite points of view when it comes to politics, lifestyle choices, etc. But they're friends! And that's okay. Your job in a persuasive essay may not be to tell your friend everything you believe or persuade them to your political party. Instead, you may want to start small and convince them in one point of your stance. (More on that in a moment!) To do that successfully, you need to know your audience (your friend) and where they stand on an issue and why.
Informed doesn't mean what my sister told me or what I read on social media. I think most of us know this, but it's easy to get fired up about the latest meme or headline we read online. Being informed means going to credible sources. For this, I recommend using your school's library database. When becoming informed on an issue, make sure you're looking at both sides of the argument. I think too often we think we need to find a bunch of quotes to support our ideas, and that is one way of doing it. But it's much better to go into that researching process with an open mind. I often tell students that if you want your audience to listen to your ideas, you need to first listen to theirs. Either way, make sure you're looking at recent articles that will help you see where we're at on a particular issue right now. Whenever possible, narrow down your search. Too often we think we need a BIG issue in order to write a 3-4 or even 5-6 page argumentative paper. The opposite is true. The more narrowed your topic---your issue, your stance--- the easier it is to support it and write about it. This leads me to my final piece of advice for this blog post... Give your readers a reasonable request I won't go too much into thesis statements here, but I think most of us can agree that you need to have a purpose for anything you're writing, but that purpose is especially important for persuasive essays. In your thesis statement or claim, you should clearly state what you want the reader to do or think differently by the time they finish reading your essay. Oftentimes I see students making several claims or asking their readers to make huge changes. Maybe they think that if they ask for something big it will be more impressive. Or maybe they don't think much about what they want their readers to do. (It goes back to that audience awareness we talked about earlier!) But if you don't say what you want your readers to do, then it can easily turn into a ramble or rant. No argument. No persuasion. Instead of asking your readers, for example, to ban all cars everywhere (because we want to stop pollution), ask them to consider walking more often. Instead of asking your readers to abolish all animal testing, consider a specific product that you know does animal testing and encourage your readers not to support this company. That kind of thing! Whatever it is, make it a reasonable request. It's possible that your audience, despite doing all these things, will (still!) not be persuaded. That's okay! But at least you can know you've given it your best effort.
I was tutoring when the pandemic hit during Spring Break 2020, but I talked to a lot of teachers about their struggles, not only because I wanted to help them but also because I knew I might be teaching in the Fall. I don't have all the numbers or the inside scoop, but I wanted to talk about the enrollment problems I've been hearing about, especially when it comes to our ESL students. Last I heard, 90% of the classes we're offering for Fall 2020 at my community college is either Live-Online or traditional-Online (your time). Unlike the university, our usual online numbers are never like that! Most of our students are, well, from the community. They're usually nontrad (short for nontraditional), which means that they're coming back to school after five, ten, sometimes twenty years after high school. As you may expect, they prefer the in-class experience. But like I mentioned in a previous post, teachers and students are getting used to the "new" normal of online education, so our general enrollment is as good as can be expected. (Any school is better than no school, right?) According to my department chair, students have been a little hesitant to enroll, but they're coming our way. Incoming Freshman Incoming freshman might be a different story. My heart goes out to anyone who graduated high school this year. I can only imagine what it was like to finish your Senior year with the chaos that was happening March-May, 2020. There are a lot of uncertainties right now (for a lot of us!), and I imagine these incoming freshman might be feeling burdened: Is college a good choice right now? Wouldn't it be better to get a job and support my struggling family? Can we afford tuition right now? Three weeks before the semester started, we were 45% down where we were last year in enrollment from this group (freshman comp, that is). A week later, we were only about 29% down. It seems that they, too, were hesitant to enroll, but seeing that college is a long-term investment and will overall help their families, they're (also) joining us online. *Phew!* Now, let's talk about ESL ESL students are usually a mixture of trad and nontrad. Generally speaking, advanced ESL students learned English in their home country, usually in high school (sometimes before that). They are usually international, which means they don't plan on staying in the country. They're here to immerse themselves in English, get a degree/career and go home. They're usually sponsored by their government (more on that soon!) and are incoming freshman (traditional). Again, generally speaking, most lower level students have lived in the country for years and years but don't know English very well. They pick-up words and phrases here and there, either from the TV or from their kids who are much better at English than they are. They live in language pockets, which means that they speak their first language at the local grocery store and in their neighborhoods, etc. Some of them, I admit, go into college wanting a degree/career, but most of them just want to improve their English enough to get promoted at their job and/or get a better job all together. They are almost always nontrad. So what's happening with ESL enrollment? Along with the uncertainty that we're all feeling right now, our international (F1-Visa) students have some additional hurdles, namely sponsors. (These are those higher-level, career-bound ESL students I was talking about.) It seems that a lot of the sponsors are no longer wanting to pay for them to be here. It isn't ideal to have these students sitting around their apartment taking online classes. I mean, that's not why the sponsors send them to study abroad! Thankfully, it sounds like some sponsors are becoming more understanding of the situation and we'll be seeing more enrollment from these students soon. Most likely, our college will have to create new sections a week or two after regular classes begin (something we call late-start). Even then, I don't know how long these understanding sponsors will tolerate the situation. They could pull these students at any time. As for that other group I told you about, our nontrad, job-seeking ESL students---no one is really talking about them. You may remember that I was assigned to teach a level one writing course. Well, this week I had only four students enrolled. (Pretty sad, huh?) I talked to the chair of my department and he said he wasn't going to cancel any ESL classes unless he absolutely had to. I felt better after he said that, but a day later (today), I got an email from the secretary that said they had to cancel my class. I'm pretty heartbroken, but it didn't surprise me... Surviver Mode
If you had been living in a country for years and years and your first language got you everything you needed (food, housing, job, friendship), would you learn a new language? It's easy to say, "if you live here, speak English!" but have you tried to learn a language? I have, and I failed! ha ha! I wasn't motivated enough and every time I tried to immerse myself, I fell back onto English because it was comfortable. Well, here in Arizona, we have a lot language pockets (not just Spanish). As you may have guessed, these neighborhoods are often lower income, so jobs and food take priority over higher education. I'm not saying that these lower level/job-seeking students aren't motivated to learn English and improve their situation. They are! But I wouldn't blame them if they went into survivor mode right now: feed the family, get the kids' schooling figured out, and try not to get Covid! I don't mean to sound sour in this post, but I wanted to let you know what I know and why even though online education is booming, a lot of ESL teaching at the college is at a sudden standstill. It may be that we just need to wait another semester for them to figure out their "new normal," but who knows? Maybe this Covid will blow over by Spring. All I know is that I heart ESL, and I hope they find me as I tutor online this semester. I was tutoring when things first "went down" with Covid-19 and schools closed, but I am teaching an ESL level one writing course this fall, which begins in three weeks! When I was offered the teaching gig, I wasn't sure if I wanted it. It's a pretty stressful time (for everyone, I know!), and I wasn't sure if I wanted to add to the stress I already have. After some debate, though, I decided to take it on. After all, I'm an extrovert and I could use all the social interaction I can get! Teaching Live-Online As you may remember from an earlier post, the class I'm teaching this fall has a Live-Online format. That means I will meet with my students in real-time twice a week. Naturally, then, the first question I asked my teaching supervisor was which online platform should I use for my Live-Online course? I knew I'd be posting homework on Canvas, but what about those live-online meetings? Should I be using Zoom, Webex, CraniumCafe, or something else? "Level one, right?" he asked me. "Yep!" "Go with Google Meet." This answer surprised me because my college has been offering tons of training for Webex, and our in-person-tutoring-center-moved-online uses CraniumCafe. For church and such, I usually use Zoom, so I asked my supervisor why Google Meet? Why Google Meet? "I had to move my in-person classes to online last semester," he told me. "And I tried them all! Google Meet was the simplest because students didn't need to make an account or download any software. You just give them a link, and they click and enter!" That made sense to me! ESL, especially level one, tend to overcomplicate things. I suppose that's true for any college student, but I often imagine myself doing the tasks I give my students as if I were doing them in a second language. I don't speak any Arabic, for example. Would I be able to create an account or even know what to download if it was told to me in Arabic? Probably not! I was also happy to hear about this recommendation because that's what the English department used when we all went online. They had several optional hangouts every week, and instructors (full time or part time!) could talk and ask questions. I went to those not only because I was the tutoring coordinator at the time and wanted instructors to know that tutors were available online to help their students, but as an extrovert, I needed that social interaction! Anyway, what I remember most about using Google Meet was how there weren't any unnecessary bells and whistles. It took a minute to figure out where to access stuff, like the mic and video (etc) because the options hide when you're not hovering over them (I will need to explain this to students!), but otherwise, the chat is clean and for an ESL class, the most important thing is being able to access video and audio.
I asked the Internet, and it turns out that you shouldn't have that problem if you slide your presentation to an extra monitor, but I just have my good-old trusty MacBook and no extra monitor, so that wasn't helpful to me.
Someone else suggested opening Google Meet on two devices. The one on your computer, for example, could control the presentation while your phone would allow you to see the other participants. But don't do that! I got a crazy screeching sound, so I turned off the volume on my phone, but there was a funky echo because the computer and phone were both still picking up my voice. I was discouraged that I couldn't figure out something so simple (yet important!) and was just getting over it (maybe I wouldn't present any power points!) when I found the awesome video I'm sharing with you in this blog. It made me super happy because I love using google slides. Now I know I can present power points with lots of pictures (which is key to teaching level one ESL) and be able to see if someone is confused or if they left the meeting for whatever reason, and they will be able to see me while I'm presenting. Yay! I'm sure there will be other challenges and bugs to work out while I'm teaching, but I thought I'd share out this helpful tip, especially to those of you wanting to teach online with Google Meet. Happy teaching! I don't know about you, but when my college announced that we had to work from home, I thought it would only be for a couple weeks, maybe a month. I guess that shows you how clueless I was about this whole Corvid-19 thing! But I don't think I'm alone in this. We live in strange times, and a lot of people don't have "answers" or know what's going to happen. These are uncertain times, for sure! Emergency Online Teaching Back in March, the English department at my school did what they called "emergency online teaching." Thankfully, I wasn't teaching a class at the time when everything "went down," but I saw what it did to these students that had signed up for in-person classes and were suddenly thrust into online environments. In short, they panicked. They struggled. They dropped out. (Super sad!) Same for a lot of teachers, too, though. They over corrected, tried to keep the same in-person lesson plans and activities, and struggled to figure out video conferencing and other essential technology that they hadn't been required to learn before all of this. When I was tutoring and students complained about all the changes in their syllabus and flip-flopping of assignments in their (now) online classes, I reminded them to have patience and told them, "we're all in this together!" We pulled through this "emergency online teaching" somehow and finished up the Spring semester. Yay! High Hopes I think we all had high-hopes of returning to campus this Fall. (I know I did!) But with a spike in Covid-19 cases in my state, many of the departments at my college have decided to stay online for the Fall semester, just in case. There's rumor that we'll be offering some in-person services, like cashiers, financial aid, etc. But the English department says they're having us stay home, and our tutoring center said the same thing. To quote my English department chair, "we're no longer responding to emergency online teaching." Yes, there are still learning curves to tackle and added training we need in order to teach effectively online. (FYI: I completed the first of three accreditations for teaching online during Spring break. I had a feeling to do it!) But we've (hopefully!) learned from our crash course in moving everything online in Spring. Now we can take that knowledge (as well as other training) and make Fall online even better! Our Summer semester, by the way, has been online. I didn't get a class to teach, but I'm tutoring, and I'm noticing that students are (also) getting the hang of this online-stuff, including interacting with classmates and instructors via video conferencing. What Fall looks like at my college Below is an image of our learning options we're providing at our college this Fall. I haven't heard of any departments doing in-person or hybrid. I suppose those would be reserved for subjects that require a lab (like Chemistry, for example), or hands-on learning (like auto-mechanics). The English department (which includes ESL!) is only doing Live-Online and Online. To teach or not to teach? Last week, I was offered to teach a Live-Online ESL, level 1 writing course this Fall semester. I told them I had to think about it. Was I ready to do this? I'd learned a lot from the tutoring aspect, but could I handle an online class? A live-online, no less!? It would probably be easier cheering my colleagues from the sidelines, wouldn't it? I mean, online tutoring is my jam, not online teaching... in real-time? I've taken online classes, but they were not for the Live-Online format. What would that even look like? I told my husband that if I ever taught a class during this pandemic, online, I'd want to do it asynchronously (online, your time). How can I be certain that my students would always have access to wifi and/or be available to attend a class at a specific time? Covid-19 has created a lot of uncertainty. What if a student loses their job and/or has to get a new one and their schedule changes? What if they thought that time would work because their kids were planning to go back to school but now they can't do that time anymore because they need to home school their kids? It's a level 1, though. Would they be able to navigate an online course without having the chance to meet with me via video conferencing at least twice a week? Maybe they need the interactions with their peers. Actually, now that I think about it, they will! If they're like me, they'll be starving for human connections while they learn and grow. If we can't get it in-person, I suppose the Live-Online option is the next best option. Besides, these level 1 students will want to ask questions, and sometimes they're often more comfortable speaking in real-time (where they can use hand motions, etc) than writing a formal email to an instructor. Anyway, long story short (too late!) I accepted the teaching gig! Coming to a theater near you...
So stay tuned! I'm planning on giving a play-by-play of my first-time teaching a Live-Online ESL class. It's been a while since I've taught level 1 students, so that will make it doubly adventurous. ha ha! Level 1 ESL students are sweethearts! (I work with them in tutoring, so I know that hasn't changed since the last time I taught level 1!) They often have sincere motivations to learn for the sake of learning and usually make excellent improvements throughout the semester. Man, I love working with ESL students. I can't wait to meet them! This post was first published on Upswing's blog on May 20, 2020. I started peer tutoring at the Writing Center when I was a college student and thought tutoring was just something that paid the bills while I was going to school. I quickly learned, however, that tutoring was (and is) so much more for me! Even though I was getting my degree in English, I wasn’t planning on becoming a teacher. It wasn’t until I took some time away from school and tutoring that I realized how important helping other writers was to me. I switched gears and added teaching as my emphasis and specialized in English to Speakers of Other Languages. For a year or so, I taught full time as a college instructor, and I was happy. But there was something missing… Maybe I was experiencing teacher burnout, but I knew that nothing gave me greater joy than helping writers identify their own strengths and weaknesses in their writing, think critically about their ideas, organization and writing processes, and improve not only their drafts, but also themselves as writers. I had to remember what had gotten me into teaching in the first place. I decided to cut back on my teaching load and started tutoring again… but this time with Upswing! Coaching for Upswing is great because we’re contracted with a lot of schools, so the opportunities for me to reach struggling writers is far reaching. This is important to me because I had cheerleaders and mentors that helped me get through college, and I don’t know where I’d be without them. Recently, I decided to explore my own writing abilities. I wrote a book! It took me four years to write the first draft, but I did it. Now I’m rewriting, getting feedback from others in the writing community, and improving it, which is basically what students do at a smaller scale when they complete their writing assignments. It’s no wonder that through my writing journey, I’ve gained even more empathy for struggling writers. Writing is tough, y’all!
So is math, science, and learning a foreign language… or any subject in college for that matter. Everyone could use a mentor, coach, and cheerleader to get them through tough times. That’s what Upswing is all about, and I’m proud to play my small part in it. In an earlier post, I gave an overview of the researching process and some tips for coaching students through it. Upon reflection, I thought I might share my favorite researching analogy. It's been extraordinarily helpful in my tutoring sessions! Even if you're not a tutor or teacher (maybe you're a student?), I hope this analogy helps you think through the researching process in a new way.
Sometimes I go in not knowing what I'm looking for, and I find the "perfect" thing without even trying. Most of the time, though, that's not the way it works for me. Shopping, especially if you care about your wallet like I do, takes work! Having a purpose Sometimes I go shopping with the goal of buying at least one new pair of jeans. Or, maybe I'm going to a special event, like a wedding. Having an objective for my shopping helps me narrow done my search, and (in the long run) helps me save time! I won't really look through the purses, shoes, or hats (for example) if I know those things don't help me with my objective. Research is like this, too. There is a lot of information out there, so if you can narrow down your topic and make a list of keywords that are going to be the most helpful, then you can mix and match those keywords to, hopefully, find what you're looking for without wasting your time or getting sucked into a rabbit hole of information that isn't going to be helpful for your project. Choose really good research questions (you know, questions you don't know the answer to) because this will keep your research be more authentic and engaging. Research is meant to be a process: a process of discovery and learning! Trying on possibilities Again, if you're like me, I don't buy the first pair of jeans I come across. I look at the prices and sizes and often pick out 3-5 I'm interested in and try them on. I usually only like one of those 3-5 (if I'm lucky). If I don't like what I tried on, I go back out and find some other options. I try on clothes until I find (literally!) the "perfect fit." It's good to be openminded because I've tried on things that would "work" with my objective, but I don't know how it will look on me, you know? I try it on anyway, and, sometimes, wow! It's comfortable, affordable, and looks great on me, and end up buying it. This, too, is like research. Even though you might be required to have three sources, you never want to grab the first thing you find. Maybe it will work out, but you don't know that. Shop around. "Try on" articles, books, videos, interviews, etc. Narrow down your search as much as possible, but then try them out. Read the summaries (abstracts), find the thesis or results section and see if you like it. You may end up reading things you don't use, and that's okay! Give yourself the freedom to be picky and find the best sources for you and your writing project. Once you've found the sources you want to "take home," or use in your paper, spend time with it. Read it. Read it again. Circle and look up words you don't know. Highlight the main ideas, etc. This will save you time when you finally get down to writing that first draft of your research paper. Knowing where to go
When I'm going shopping with an objective in mind, I usually have a few favorite stores. Of course, I'm open to going to the one that "just opened up" or the one I know is having a "big sale" this weekend. Most of the time, though, I go where I had success in the past or I know carries my size. I would never go to a store where I received bad customer service or overcharged me. Same in research. Most of the time we Google stuff. I wonder where the nearest bank is. Ask Google. Oh, no, my toaster broke and I need to know how to fix it. Ask Google. It's natural for students to start with Google, but I'm here to tell you that Google is NOT a good place to start for academic research. Why?
A lot of school library databases even have a trustworthy citation generators. Even if they don't, they always provide you with the information you need so you can confidently know where it came from and cite it accurately. As long as you're providing quotes and signal phrases, there's no need to be worried about plagiarism! Some advice for writing tutors When I'm tutoring students that are working on research, I always talk about time management. Research, when done well, takes time. The more sources you need, the more time you'll want to allot yourself. Oftentimes, students just want to "get started" on the essay. But without having done research, how do you know what you want to say? Even if it's argumentative and you think you know which side your want to take, you need to be informed. On both sides of the argument. Heck, when you do research, you might decide that you want to take the opposite side. (It happens! And it's okay.) Some students are (maybe) able to produce a possible thesis and introduction, but most need to be informed on their subject before doing that. I touched on this already, but it's worth mentioning again, I think: stress that research is a process. It's a journey! I'm positive a lot of writing coaches do this already, but alway be encouraging and help them see how this huge project can be taken in smaller bites. I love the researching process! It's one of my favorite aspects of being part of the academia community. If that's true for you, too, help students see your passion. It'll be contagious. |
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